As I’ve stated before, inspiration comes from many different places for me.  Today was one of those days.  Since we are all friends here, I’ll let you into my life a little bit more.  Lately I’ve been a little stir-crazy, not really satisfied with myself, my possessions, my place in life.  By no means is this a call the “crisis hotline”  moment, but just another phase in my life.

As I pulled into line this morning to get my favorite breakfast sandwich, there was a lawn crew trailer in front of me with a scripture verse on it.  The verse was Hebrews 13:5  “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”” Along with the verse, it had a story about an old farmer who was tired of his place in life.

The story goes:

There was an old farmer who grew discontent with his farm, so he decided to sell it.  A few days later the real estate agent phoned wanting approval for an advertising she intended to place in the local newspaper.  She read it to the farmer, it described a lovely farm in an ideal location- quiet and peaceful, contoured with rolling hills, nourished with a fresh water lake, and blessed with well-bred livestock.  The farmer said ” Read that to me again.” After hearing it a second time he said “I’ve changed my mind.  I’m  not selling.  I’ve been looking for a place like this all my life!”

As I pulled away from the window, my favorite saying came to mind.   “The reason the grass looks greener on the other side, is because they take care of it.  If you take care of your lawn, it too would look this green.”

Thank you Lord for your little moments of teaching and support.  I guess it’s time for me to go do some yard work!

Bye for now. See ya’ll again soon

-Danny

p.s. Thanks Jeremy for allowing God to speak through your business.

Not a moment goes by that something related to cars doesn’t jump into my head.  Yesterday my pastor spoke about “The Potter’s Touch” (Jeremiah 18:1-10).  Once again my mind drifted toward cars.  Not toward my next project, but how this passage is just like working on old cars.

I very rarely start a new project from a clean sheet of paper.  Most of my projects begin from a tired box of parts, long since forgotten by their past owners.  Just like us, cars have a heart and soul just waiting to be set free from the past.

I have found, every project need a vision.  A vision of what parts will be required, a vision of what the final appearance will look like, and most important, a vision of what it’s purpose will be.  My goal, in any project, is to create something special from the parts I have to work with, as does a potter with his clay.

Sometimes I see myself as a box of parts. Some old, some new, some in need of repair.  I think God sees us in that way too.  When we mess up, He doesn’t throw us away and start over.  He picks up our broken parts and molds them back into the vision He had all along.  Even the stubborn parts can be fixed!

I invite you to join me in asking God to fix our broken parts, and mold us back into his vision.

Thank you again for your time.

-Danny

Jeremiah 18:1-10 (the message)

The Potters Touch

^1-2 God told Jeremiah, “Up on your feet! Go to the potter’s house. When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.” ^3-4So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.^5-10Then God’s Message came to me: “Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?” God’s Decree! “Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel. At any moment I may decide to pull up a people or a country by the roots and get rid of them. But if they repent of their wicked lives, I will think twice and start over with them. At another time I might decide to plant a people or country, but if they don’t cooperate and won’t listen to me, I will think again and give up on the plans I had for them.

Inspiration for me comes form many sources, and at any moment.  This mornings drive  happened to be a morning of inspiration.  Last summer’s drought took a toll on the trees here in Spring.  The once sturdy and tall, have been taken down to just a stump.  In our lives, as with nature, death brings new life.

Me and my wife have several friends with newborns, and as we come off the day we celebrated the love and joy of our Mothers, I can’t help to think of the pain our Moms went through to bless us into this world.  From their pain the beauty of our lives are born.

As a car builder, the creation of a new project can have a similar feel to giving birth. The tired feet, the sore back, the blood sweat and tears, all come into play to bring it into this world.  Like with your child, one of the best feelings is watching it “walk”  for the first time.  Many a time I have watched a car leave and wonder did I do the best I could.  Could I have done better?  The answer in my mind is always YES.  With the pain of busted knuckles, and sore backs comes the beauty of a happy customer.

This fall my son, my youngest, will be heading off to college.  A day me and my wife look forward and dread at the same time.  We are proud and excited of the man God is building, but still, he is our baby boy.  A 6′-4″ baby boy!  Through the pain of our son leaving comes the beauty of God’s plan for his life.

Many years ago, God sent his only son to take on an overwhelming pain for our sins.  In doing this, we are  able to be the beauty He created us to be.  I encourage everyone to accept the gift God gave us with His son Jesus, so that we all can share in His beauty.

Once again, thank you for your time.

-Danny

If you live by these dog rules, you will be a happier person!
There’s a lot we humans can learn from dogs. If you live your life by the same philosophy that dogs do, you will be much better off in life. In the wild, animals fight only for two things, not a fancy car, not clothes or jewelry, they just fight for food or a mate, everything else they get after that is just pure happiness.

1. See life with joy and wonder.
2. Experience the beauty of nature and smell as much as you can.
3. Open your heart to the ones you love.
4. Sometimes you are allowed to break a few rules, go for it.
5. Be loyal, you will keep friends for life.
6. Cravings are good, enjoy them while you can.
7. Make sure you do something fun everyday.
8. Enjoy good foods, savor them like if it was your last meal.
9. Be yourself and you will always have true friends
10. Be persistent and bark until you get what you want.
11. If someone is having a bad day, snuggle the worries away.
12. Enjoy the love of your pack.
13. Delight in the simple joys of a long walk on the beach.
14. Allow people to love you.
15. Less barking, more tail wagging.
16. Celebrate if you feel like it.
17. Get inspire by the simplest things in life.
18. Everything is possible, all you need is love.

Hope you have a blessed day.

-Danny

As the song goes, The Christmas Season can be a wonderful time during our ever shortening year.  This year was no different.

Last week the lord blessed me with some sad news.  I know “blessed with sad news” sounds very strange, but hang on i’ll explain.  Last week, two of my favorite church friends got the ultimate “hall pass”.  The first received her’s on Saturday the 17th. after a wonderful 91 years on this earth.  The second received his’ on Tuesday the 20th. after a trial with cancer.  Even though we all wish they were still with us, we are blessed to know they are in Heaven.

Both of their services were celebrations of lives filled with God’s wonder, and grace.  Throughout both services,  there was a common final wish.  That wish was that all their friends made it to Heaven.  The Bible teaches us that this body is just a vessel our souls occupy for a short time.  Our main goal should be to focus on our Heavenly body.

A few days ago we celebrated Christmas, not the rapping paper and bows Christmas but the birth of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, Christmas.  As our world gets faster and faster, we move beyond the real Christmas and fall into the trap of X-Mas.  There seams to be a disturbing trend in our world to remove anything pure and holy, and replace it with a “watered down” “one size fits none” sense of spiritualism.

Over two thousand years ago our one true Lord came down to this earth to do but one thing, save us from ourselves.  To save us from the sin we all have inside.  This Christmas season, give your friends and family the best gift of all.  The gift of knowing that you will spend eternity with them in Heaven.  It’s a simple thing to do, no special deeds, no secret handshakes.  Just ask Jesus to come into your heart and take away all the wrong that we all have done, and to be your savior.

This new year, lets move away from spiritualism and move closer to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

-Danny

As some of you might know, being part of a family business can be tough.  Worrying if there will be enough money for bills.  Worrying if all your workers will make it to work today.  Worrying if your customers are happy with their projects.  These are all but a few things that cloud my mind at any given moment.  To be truthful, there are days that make you cry out “WHY WOULD ANYONE OWN THEIR OWN BUSINESS?”.  At that moment, God drops a message in your lap, “This is why.”.

For a few years now, I have been part of a hot rod forum called  the H.A.M.B..  At times it can be a place of great information, and sometime a place of worthless drama.  The one thing it does best is to join people together that would never have had the chance to meet otherwise.

The other day I got an email  from a man who was in town getting some treatment in our Medical Center.  My heart sank.  When you come here for treatment, it is serious!  In his message, he wanted to know if it is possible to visit while he was in town.  Never wanting to miss a chance to talk about hot rods, I replied, “No problem.  If you come at lunch time, we’ll take ya’ll in the roadsters to lunch.”.  In no time I got an excited reply, “WE WILL BE THERE ON FRIDAY!”.  Happy to help, I stored the date in the back of my mind.  The week progressed at it’s normal stressful pace.  Gotta’ do this, gotta’ do that.  I kinda forgot about their upcoming visit.

Friday rolled around, and like clockwork, Corey and his parents arrived just before lunch.  In meeting Corey for the first time, I could see how the treatment had been tough on his body, but the gleam in his eyes showed it was all good inside!  After the “50 cent tour” of the shop, we hopped in roadsters and headed for lunch.  The weather that Friday could not have been more perfect.   We talked about how God has blessed Corey in his treatment, and what God has done in our business over the years.  The atmosphere at lunch felt like we had been friends for years.  On the way back, Corey’s dad rode back with me.  Our conversation enlighten me on what Corey was going through.  I was ashamed how perfect my life was compared to what he was going through.

As we took pictures and said our good byes, I realized that what ever blessing we were to them, they were ten fold to us.  At times we all have  “can’t see the forest for the trees” moments.  That day, a visit from Corey, cut all the the trees down.

I feel God has blessed us all with a purpose.  After years of  building cars, I now see that my purpose is to bless others with what God has bless me with.  Hot Rods!

question:

How will you use your blessings?

-Danny

The guys from TEXAS MOTOR EVENTS stopped by the other day and did a short run down of the history of our shop.  Hope ya’ll like it.

click here to see pictures from their visit.

-Danny

Well I know that it is the third already, but I still wanted to wish all of you a blessed and happy new year.

Have you ever wondered why the windshield of you car is so much bigger than you rear view mirror?  It is so you can have a good view of  what is ahead of you, and less of what is behind you.  Deep huh?

As I sat in church yesterday morning, my pastor gave us a bit of info that you can’t get from the Bible.   He said that 98% of the atoms in your body renew over a 12 month period.   So.  Not only is it a new year, but we are also new this year.  How cool is that?

Like most people, every year I plan to do better at something.  This year I plan to do more looking forward, and less looking backward.  I hope and pray that you will join me in doing this, so we all can have a better year.

As they say.  The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.

Thanks to all for the support in 2010.

-Danny

Once again, with the help from the master web designer Ryan, we have made some progress on our website.  Take a look around the store front, and see the new goodies up for sale.

Thanks for all the support.

-Danny

 Hello.  My name is Danny, and I’m a VW addict!

  I have to blame my dad for part of my love for VWs.  While on a trip to California, Dad took some pictures of some custom VW bugs.  From that moment on, I was hooked!  At that time I was 15 going on 16 in need of a cheap car to drive, so he tracked down a clean 1966 bug for me.  I have always said that I have never met anyone that has only owned one VW, and I was no different.  As in any addiction, you start off small and before you know it you are in over your head.  Over the next 8 years I owned over 25 different vintage VWs.   I starting off with a common ’66 bug, and worked my way through some very desirable Bugs and Buses.   In 1996 I gave up VWs because I could not afford the next step of cool, a split window beetle.  To me a split window beetle was the Holy Grail of VWs.  Since a split was out of my price range, I did something really crazy, I built a 32 roadster.  Yea, I know.  From one addiction to another. 

Fast forward 14 years. 

The other day I walked in to see my almost 16 year old son looking at online classifieds for vintage VWs.   For a very short moment I was worried about passing my addiction on to my son, but I guess there are worse addictions to have.  Yep.  I can see some road trips and a new generation of VW stories comming.

Man, the circle of life is a strange one, but what a ride!

–Danny

P.S. I found the split window bug I want.  The bad part is it is more than a 32 roadster.  I guess I still can’t afford a split!